The focus of treatment and support for PTSD seem to concentrate on the emotional aspects.

But what happens when you have constant physical reminders of a trauma related event? Those physical reminders can be visible or invisible. Tissue scars and lifetime pain associated with injuries recieved as part of the trauma. The type of injuries that do not mend and deteriorate.

How do you think you can "move on" if you have those constant physical reminders?

Sorry I've been a bit quiet, I've been having various scans, clinics and tests with diagnosis of major spinal and neurological damage related to my accident which was almost 13 years ago.

There doesn't seem to be any escape from the event itself? The injuries will not let you move on.

I welcome comments and input from all members on this one. No downer on this, just open discussion. I always maintain a strong pma.

5 Replies

Hard to say what our reaction to retrospective reminders of the cause of our PTSD will do to us. We are all different. In my own experience, after much effort and help to face and analyse my hospital experience, I was able to gradually and finally get on top. Your experiences, hayabusa, were horrific - but I guess whatever the root cause of anyone's PTSD, it is horrific in its cause and effect. I was laid out in hospital for a long time with my back. Morphine had an awful and hallucinatory effect on me. I wanted to escape from that place.I wanted to curl up and disappear. Total nightmare.

Happily, I am now able to look at and experience reminders of what went on without much effect. I can walk into a hospital where, in the early days It was impossible. Now a back pain is no longer a threat of returning fear and panic. I can only hope that any of us will be able to eventually work through and achieve something similar.

I think you have done incredibly well and you sound very much happier after your past personal nightmare.

Its a huge encouragement to me and others to hear your words.

I am glad to have met you online and I hope we can continue to help and support anyone who needs some answers or to start a discussion or just to chat.

I believe that no one needs to suffer in silence and talking about it is the start of finding a way back to more normality in their lives.

None of us are experts or medical professionals, we are just people who have just been through it and either moved on, or are still living with it.

Anyone can speak with complete honesty and some of us like me and no doubt you too, are robust enough to hear and to care.

I want to help other people find their own answers in a secure and confidential environment.

The crime against me was bad enough, but I have ahd other equally traumatic events throughout my life. I am a survivor and you develop a certain grit about you and also a bigger spiritual depth.

Although there is no score card with any of this, there is no one person who suffers any more or less than anyone else. It is certainly not a competition.

I will ensure that unsuitable posts are removed for anyone who has doubts about being able to speak and I would appreciate if other members report to me any comments they are unhappy about. I want a calm and open section where everyone can speak and comfortbale to speak.

I know we already have a few wise and caring hands on here already, so please be part of making this a caring and welcoming place? It doesnt matter what background, we are all people who have been through the mill and that deserves respect.

But we should have some happy things to and share some of the fun and good times in our lives.

Another factor I have found to be a barrier are the social exclusions for various reasons.

Self exclusion because you dont want to share your feelings or be with other people for them to see how you are. You dont feel as if you can talk to anyone. You don't want anyone to see you have changed.

You dont want to share it with anyone close to you. Partners or other family and friends.

Some of these experiences that happen to you are so bad you don't want anyone close to you to know what happend to you. It makes you feel different to them in an unpleasant way.

I felt that I could not share what happend to me in any detail with other people because it was too nasty for other people to hear. I felt contaminated? unclean? I felt I had been through something so unpleasant I had to keep it to myself.

You do feel very isolated because what happened was so frightening and also because you isolate yourself because you don't want to inflict what you have suffered onto other people out of care towards them.

I also carry physical scars from my "trauma" from over 30 years ago. They never fade and they still have an effect on my daily life. They have, however, become part of me. I like me, I am happy in my own skin. There fore they seem less important than when my trauma ruled my life.

Try and be the master of your memories, not the slave. That's easier said than done but it does work.

Yeah the physical damage is a tough one, because for me it is a constant reminder of the crime against me for which I never saw justice and never will.

But my over all feelings are that I am glad to be alive and to be here to see the world and spend time in the natural environment and to be able to see my two kids growing up and doing well.

The severity of my struggle for survival and justice inspired my daughter to work hard to obtain a place on a Law degree course in a top 5 UK University for Law. She was so inspired seeing what I went through !! In 2009 I was pretty choked up to be there at her award ceremony as she took her degree with honours. She is doing incredibly well as senior management with a Texas oil company.